This is a facet of subliminal messaging that is not well known. How can such a seemingly harmless, yet not fully proven tool be used as a tool to actually be able to control vast amounts of people? The idea of using subliminal messaging to control people is actually not very different from advertising.

One of the first people to experiment with this sort of mass control was Edward Bernays. Nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate the public through subliminal messaging. Bernays started working as a publicist for simple theatrical productions and promoted the appearances of artists. However as the United States entered World War I he offers his services to the nations in the department of Public Information and later he went on to form the Counsel for Public Relations.

During the 1920’s and 1930’s he ran advertising campaigns for Venida hair nets, Lucky Strike Cigarettes, and Procter & Gamble and was an advisor for the public relations divisions of the companies. To help the Lucky Strike Cigarettes gain customers, Barneys successfully suggested women as new potential smokers, and it was a great success for the company. Women were able to smoke in public without stigma by the early thirties. What Bernays did was write letters to fashion designers, department stores and eminent women in society to see green (that current lucky strike cigarette box colour) as the new fashionable color to dress in. The result was in 1934 the colour green indeed became a very hot colour and with the matching cigarette packs and clothes, Barneys was able to establish a situation in which he could make cigarettes also interesting for women by relating it to another part of their life (Edward).

By use of this technique, Barneys attacked the “deepest” desires of the people in order to manipulate them to do what he wanted. This way he was able to create a market strategy which used subconscious mass control technique to increase the acceptance of a product in society.